to be or not to be... a pack rat

before i came down here, i remember at least a couple of people gave me a hard time about bringing so much stuff. they'd say cait: "it's not like you are going to a deserted island. they'll have toothpaste there." i had three bags that were filled with clothes, shoes, teaching materials, toiletries and medicine. i also had two carry-on bags that held my computer and several books. needless to say, i was pretty bogged down. at logan airport, a couple of people wanted to know where i was going with all that stuff. i felt a lot better after i revealed that the stay was more than a month or two, that it was actually 10 months (at least). when i got to the hostel here, a couple of backpacker dudes commented about how much stuff the teachers had. like we were being completely frivolous.

well, last week's experience sure paid off for me in the planning ahead category. i had brought a completely new container of saline solution down with me from the states. unfortunately, the time had come where i needed to purchase more. scott and i noticed that saline solution is not sold at drugstores or grocery stores on shelves like it is in the States. we realized we now needed to ask an attendant if they could produce this magical mystery juice and present it before us so we could know what we were dealing with. as we were bantering back and forth about what the price difference could be, i have to say i was shocked when i found out just how much it was. a bottle of optifree express (around 8 bucks in the States) was 15 dollars!!! What! i couldn't believe it. at home, i buy the cheapest saline solution i can find (which usually costs about $3.50 a bottle). i had noticed a lot of chileans with eye glasses but this was just wrong. scott wasn't as surprised as i was. pancho asked him 2 weeks ago, "why do all you gringoes have bad eyes?" don't know pancho, couldn't tell you.

this experience was coupled with a more positive one. realizing that i had yet again been lapsing into sleeping more, feeling groggier and having little energy, i now know i will never get by in life without my iron supplement. the problem is it is expensive (40 US) and comes in a glass bottle and given that, it doesn't travel very well. my herbalist friend (who owns uncle sam's goods in troy) recommended (through e-mail) that i try siberian ginseng or alfalfa here. feeling a little down that i would have to pay almost 9 mil to be able to put lenses on my eyeballs, i found myself wandering into a holistic, naturopathic store. i looked, i saw...they sold my iron supplement! i couldn't believe it! well how much was it? i winced at the pain of hearing a price.... wait for it... 12 dollars!!! my floradix iron tabs cost a third of the price down here. why?? it doesn't make sense.